RECENT TRENDS IN AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

Abstract

AMERICAN anthropology as an organized science is only one hundred years old. The American Ethnological Society of New York, founded in 1842, was first organization of its kind on continent. In 1851 the first scientific account of an Indian tribe appeared-Lewis H. Morgan's League of Iroquois. In 1866 Peabody Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology was founded in Cambridge. In 1879 Bureau of American Ethnology was organized as first agency to be supported by a national government for systematic study of aboriginal groups under its jurisdiction. In same year Anthropological Society of Washington was founded. The first number of American Anthropologist appeared in 1888 and Journal of American Folklore began following year. These early milestones were conceived and set up by men who, for most part, had begun in other fields such as geology (McGee), medicine (Matthews) or law (Morgan). Some, like Matthews, subsisted from their original profession ancLpractised anthropology as an avocation. Others, like Powell and Putnam, became affiliated with Bureau of American Ethnology or with a museum. The universities were slow in adding anthropology to their course of study. The first Ph.D. (1892) was awarded to Chamberlain by Clark University only a little over fifty years ago and exactly fifty years after founding of first American society for anthropology. In this first half century foundations were laid and pioneer work in American archeology, linguistics, physical anthropology and ethnography was done. This did not stop at simple description. These men were interested in interpreting what they saw, although facts they possessed were few compared with number available today.' The outstanding efforts in this direction were made by Morgan. In Systems of consanguinity and affinity (1870) he attempted to classify kinship systems and relate them to each other. Ancient society (1877) is one of most substantial attempts in Europe or America to contribute to an understanding of evolution of our social system. In Houses and house-life of American aborigines (1881) he tried to show correlation between architectural forms and social organization. This is true scientific attitude: facts are of value only for generalizations that can be derived from them and applied to a better understanding of our own life. From 1892 to about 1925 Boas and his students dominated American anthropology. They found much to criticize in evolutionary approach. When they tried to apply evolutionist's sequences of development to particular tribes or peoples they discovered that history of few if any of them con-